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Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama insists the ongoing river normalization program is the best way to mitigate flooding in the capital.

"If we do not normalize the rivers, it will be impossible [to mitigate floods]. [Flooding] is the result of the rivers having not yet been widened or [their banks] heightened," Ahok said at City Hall on Friday.

He was speaking in response to Anies Baswedan, his competitor in the gubernatorial election, who had said Jakarta needed absorption wells, instead of the normalization program.

“Water management must use a vertical drainage system. [As] draining water to the sea is not enough. It must be channeled into the ground,” Anies said on Thursday, responding to severe flooding in several areas across Jakarta as the result of lengthy downpours and heavy rain in Bogor, West Java, flowing to the capital.

Floodwater inundated the homes of around 8,000 residents living along the Ciliwung riverbank. (ebf)